Jain Dualism ► Jain Dualism [2] Fields and Interactions

Posted: 30.03.2009

Vargana (Energy Fields)

Jain philosophy proclaims that the fundamental constituent of the physical order of existence is energy and paramanu is its ultimate smallest unit. The jain paramanu, the real quantum of energy, is far too small than photon, the quantum of energy, known to science. Vargana is a cluster of a large number, generally infinite, of paramanus. Varganas are classified on the basis of number of paramanus (in a range) in the cluster. Though the clusters could be of infinite types depending on the number of paramanus, twenty-three main types of varganas have been recognized. Each type has a range of number of paramanus. These varganas broadly fall in two groups.

Mass less varganas (4 touch) - first thirteen types of varganas belong to this group. The paramanus in these varganas are in unbound state.

Varganas having mass (8-touch)- the last ten types belong to this category the paramanus in these varganas are bonded, and bonding is supposed to produce the mass.

Because of the charge of paramanu the vargana could be visualized as a field. These vargana fields are physical and each field has a frequency range. The nature and character of each vargana field would be different due to variation in the number of paramanus in the varganas. All kinds of varganas are present in the whole cosmos. The penetrating power and maximum velocity of vargana is highest in the case of a single paramanu vargana and they decrease with increase in number of paramanus in the vargana. A single paramanu moving freely can pass though all objects like planets, stars (or black holes) uninterrupted and it has a velocity large enough to cross the entire cosmos in almost no time. The velocity of mass less varganas is also supposed to be much greater than the velocity of light. The sun light is 8-touch vargana having mass. The biggest vargana of mass category is supposed to produce all the visible matter and their constituent atoms and sub atomic particles, in the cosmos. The three mass less vargana of our particular interest are

The varganas can be compared to Morphic fields of Rupert Sheldrake. Each type of vargana makes up a specific type of field having a particular application. For each field there is a wide range of frequency and for each frequency the charge of paramanu can vary over a wide range. The above three varganas constitute the subtle body of a living organisms as described earlier.

Interactions between Bodies

(a) Karma Body

The Karma body is made of Karman vargana. The process of formation of Karma today is the most important phenomenon in the life of an organism. Each and every organism in this universe, from the most under developed organism like virus (or even smaller organisms that may exist) to the highly developed organism like human beings, has a Karma body. The karma body is a dynamic structure having a regular input of Karma vargana and exit of Karma, which have matured. The inflow of Karman vargana is caused by resonance phenomena. The soul experiences vibrations due to activity involving attachment and aversion attributes. The attachment and aversion attributes are in a way related to the instinctual desires and needs like food, fear, sex, possessiveness, anger, ego, decent and greed in all organisms and also to the thought activity in higher organisms. The vibrations depend on the type of activity, each activity is associated with a particular kind of vibration having a definite frequency and intensity, the intensity is related to the intensity of action. The vibration in the soul (non-physical) induces vibrations in the Karma body, which experiences vibrations of the same type that is the karma body vibrates at a particular frequency. The vibrating Karma body attracts Karman vargnas of the same frequency from the cosmos due to the phenomenon of resonance. These incoming varganas get bonded with the similar karma present in the karma body due to the force of activities of body, speech and mind and the passions that originated vibrations in the soul. Thus new Karmas are formed in the Karma body. These Karmas are of various kinds depending on the nature of the source activity but here we limit to two broad categories of Karma, the psychical karma and the physiological Karma, which fundamentally differ in their characteristic. The psychical karma imposes limits on the powers of the soul so that an inherently infinitely powerful soul explicitly experiences only a tiny fraction of his power in the mundane state. The actual power expressed depends on the development of consciousness of the soul; it is least expressed in virus like organisms and highly expressed in human beings. The psychical Karma, though not essential for the existence of the material body, have a definite role in development of consciousness. These karmas are retained by the soul up to a certain stage of development (in human body) and then gradually dropped by intentional efforts in order to proceed towards liberation. The physiological karma on the other hand are essential for having a material body, they are fully dropped just before liberation so that the soul becomes free of body.

The bond duration may be short (say, hours, days, weeks), medium (say, months, years) and long up to thousands of years. It is assumed that the short and medium duration karmas are enjoyed in the present life and the long-term karmas are carried forward to the next life or further. The bonded karma lasts in a dormant state in the karma body for a certain period during which it does not exercise any operational influence on the soul except limiting its powers. After the expiry of the bonding period the karma becomes active and causes the karma body to vibrate. The vibration waves emitting out of karma body are known as adhyavasaya. We have adhyavasaya of different kinds depending on the nature of maturing karma but we shall, as before, restrict to two kinds, the psychical adhyavasaya and physiological adhyavasaya.

The operation of the Karma body is explained in figure 4. It was mentioned earlier that the soul is divided in innumerable parts, called pradesas. Karmas bond uniformly on each pradesa so that each predesa has all the Karmas. Karma contains information record typical of the activity causing it. So the total and identical information about the past activities of the soul is available on each pradesa. For the convenience of explanation let us assume that the number of pradesa of the soul is equal to the number of cells in the body in the grown up state. All the pradesa emit adhyavasaya waves of the same kind at any instant. The Karma body is seen to contain the features of a hologram; every part of it contains total and identical information.

b) Tejas Body

Besides Karma body the soul also has a Tejas or luminous body, a part of which discharges the function of prana body. The prana body is composed of another field made up of Tejas vargana. The prana body is actuated by some physiological adhyavasaya, so that it draws tejas vargana from the cosmos, by the process of resonance, and transmits them to every cell of the material body. The supply of subtle energy through Tejas vargana is regarded essential for functioning of the cells, in the absence of prana the material body is dead. The functioning of prana body is also connected to the breathing process, interruption in prana supply stops breathing. Breathing, like prana body, is also controlled by physiological adhyavasaya.

c) Physiological Karma and Material Body

Another part of physiological adhyavasaya directly interacts with cells of the body and regulates the physiological activity. All cell activities, right from the stage of zygote, to growth of structure, formation of organs, parts and various physiological systems, the overall growth and structure, development and maintenance of the body, disorders and malfunctioning of organs and parts, etc are controlled and regulated by physiological karma. These karmas provide a blue print according to which the body is designed and formed. The particular karma responsible for this activity is called body-making karma. These karmas decide the type of body to be made, that is the species-specific body, and all the features of that body. The details of body making karma are given in the appendix, which shows what provisions exist for design and construction of the body.

The interaction of physiological adhyavasaya with the brain enables the brain to control the autonomic functions without the involvement of conscious mind. How physiological karma acquires this capability of designing and constructing the body requires the knowledge of doctrine of karma. The physiological karma can be compared to morphogenetic field, the biologists are advocating. Like karma the morphogenetic fields are individual to every organism. These fields are, of course, derived by the organism from karma vargana field in the cosmos. Thus there is a general field existing in the cosmos from which the organisms derive their part and construct their own individual field for personal use. It may be noted that the soul has the central role in construction of individual field; the soul provides the life force without which no life activity is possible.

It is now well established that all living systems emit a weak light current, which is different form sunlight, of some photons called bio photons. These bio photons are supposed to trigger the biochemical reactions and regulate the whole biochemistry in a living system. The bio photons are assumed to originate from a coherent electromagnetic field in broadband of frequencies from infrared to the ultraviolet. This field may act as both sender and receiver of the bio photon that are electro magnetic bio-information used in regulating life processes. Many significant correlations between features of the weak biological light and a number of fundamental biological processes, such as cell division, death, and major shifts in metabolism exist. The bio photon is supposed to be trapped and remitted by DNA. The bio photons can be regarded as general physiological karma and the morphogenetic fields as particular karma fields (sub fields) responsible for design and formation of individual parts, organs and systems.

There are millions of reactions in a cell per second and the bio photons emitted by physiological karma, a coherent field, provide the right quantum of energies at the right place and right time. There are trillions of cells in the body, which apart from individual functioning, must coordinate and regulate their activities to enable the body to function as an integrated whole. One of the consequences of coherence is the ability of communication at all levels within cells, between cells and between organisms capable of resonating to the same frequency. There exists an information super highway in our body which makes a real time inter and intra-cell communication possible and the cells, collection of cells in the form of tissues, parts, organs, sub-systems and systems are able to function individually and in coordination with each other in an organized meaningful manner. In addition to this the brain processes the information received from the conscious mind and the body. The brain works with frequencies, it is able to translate the avalanche of frequencies it receives via the senses (light frequencies, sound frequencies, and so on) into the concrete world of our perception. This is possible by holographic action, which functions like a translating device able to convert an apparently meaningless blur of frequencies into coherent image of our perception. Imagine the magnitude of intelligence required for this mammoth task. No super computer in the world can even compare with the brain (alone), the functioning of the whole body is far beyond our imagination. What is the source of this mind-boggling level of intelligence (except the soul)?

Biological Systems are governed by the special interactions of a coherent electromagnetic field (bio photons) and biological matter. There is a permanent feedback coupling between field and matter in a way that the field directs the locations and activity of matter, while matter provides the boundary conditions of the field. Since the field is almost fully coherent, the interference patterns of the field contain the necessary information about the regulatory function. The interference patterns of bio photons originating from the resonance tuning between the coherent field and biological matter (preferentially DNA) govern the availability of energy in a concerted action of the whole.

We recollect that a soul pradesa matches with the location of every cell, which means that adhyavasaya are emitted locally for each cell. The functions assigned to bio photons compare with the function the physiological adhyavasaya perform and therefore the two concepts are seen to describe the same aspect of reality. Both adhyavasayaa and biophotons are found in all organisms including plants and vegetation. The discovery of bio photons indirectly proves the existence of Karma body.

A cell consists of two parts, cytoplasm and nucleus, the cell functions only when both are present; the cytoplasm cannot function without the nucleus. This is because the nucleus is just not DNA structure, as is generally believed, it also contains a field counterpart representing karma. It is the karma field that regulates the functioning of DNA and the cell. DNA differentiates between species, and yet there is not a large difference between DNA of various organisms. Difference in DNA alone is not sufficient to explain the difference between species. For example, mice and humans (and most mammals) have roughly the same number of nucleotides in their genomes- about 3 billion base pairs. It means that the basic building block, the brick, is similar in mice and humans, yet a different type of building, the body, is constructed. Scientists explain the difference by gene logic but who decides this logic? Is it not the instructions contained in bio photons emitted by physiological karma field? The building plan is indeed contained in the physiological karma according to which the building is constructed using the DNA brick. Of course, the brick should also be of right quality for the type of building to be constructed. For instance, the DNA of E-coli can only construct a rudimentary hut, a simple body, and for constructing a palace of human body an improved brick, developed genome, is necessary.

A parallel argument is to say that life in its essence is information inscribed in DNA. The amount of information in the DNA of even a simple organism like E-coli is vast indeed. There is no experimental evidence that order with such high information content can arise by natural processes. The information within the genetic code is entirely independent of the chemical makeup of the DNA molecule. Some scientists still hold the view that physical information exists regardless of the presence of intelligence, and evolution allows for new information whenever a novel mutation or gene duplication occurs and is kept. It does not need to be beneficial nor visually apparent to be “information”. However, even if those were requirements they could be satisfied with the appearance of nylon-eating bacteria, which required new enzymes to digest a material that never existed until the modern age.

The Russian biophysicist and molecular biologist Pjotr Garjajev and his colleagues exposed the vibration behavior of the DNA. They found that living chromosomes function just like solitonic/holographic computers using the endogenous DNA laser radiation. They worked on devices that can influence the cellular metabolism through suitable modulated radio and light frequencies and thus repair genetic defects. DNA is also an organic superconductor that can work at normal body temperature. All superconductors are able to store light and thus information. This is further explanation of how DNA can store information. We can see that the vibrations of adhyavasaya waves emitted by physiological karma contain the instructions that cause changes in DNA through gene logic.

d) Psychical Karma, Conscious Mind and Brain

We now consider the function of psychical karma. As per Jain philosophy karma continues to operate on maturity and exercises its influence for some time. It means that adhyavasaya waves from a particular karma continue to emit for a certain length of time. There are two end uses of psychical adhyavasaya,

they interact with conscious mind and

they may interact directly with the brain.

The conscious mind is composed of yet another field made of Mano vargana. The existence of conscious mind itself is determined by psychical karma, it exists, only in higher organisms having brain. As stated earlier the conscious mind stores information collected in this life but at any given time we are conscious of only a part of it. It is assumed that the remaining part of information may also be recalled with some effort. This is in contrast with the information recorded in Karma body, the unconscious mind that cannot be recollected by conscious effort. The conscious mind does not contain the information of previous lives like karman body. The psychical adhyavasaya waves interact with the conscious mind, and produce a new kind of waves called lesya. These lesya waves interact with different body systems. Their interaction with endocrine glands produces hormones, which are known to regulate the bio-chemical activity in cells. Interaction of lesya with brain initiates and regulates the information processing activity in two steps. One, the relevant information data are transferred from conscious mind to brain and two, this information is processed along with the information available in the brain from the body. The brain has an electric field. The information from the conscious mind is supposed to transfer to the brain by the process of resonance, when the two fields, conscious mind and brain, excite at the same frequency due to thought activity or stimulation of brain field by demands of the body. This is only a preliminary assessment of the processes going on in the brain and conscious mind and further investigation are necessary to uncover and open out the secretes of the subtle part of our existence.

Any thought activity is a joint operation of both the conscious mind and the brain. Measurements on the brain represent only a part of the mental thought process. The hidden part of conscious mind may be much more than the role-played by the brain. So interpretations of mental processes based on brain measurements alone are not only incomplete they may also lead to erroneous inferences, e.g. the brain produces consciousness. The materialists must know this fact before making their claims.

Is the information stored in mind or brain or both? We know that in the scientific methods of information storage, hardware as well as an electromagnetic means is required in some way. The hardware and the electromagnetic medium together make it possible to store information. The same can be assumed to be true in organisms. The brain is the hardware and its electric field and the conscious mind provide the electro magnetic media to complete the storage system. This system can not only store but also process information at the instance of the soul via adhyavasaya. None of the individual component of this system can either store or process information. The information storage in the karma body, unconscious mind, is made on the principle of hologram and it is of different kind. A hologram can store immense amount of memory, one cubic centimeter of holographic film can held as many as 10 billion bits of information. A hologram is capable of encoding and decoding frequencies; a function that is assigned to karma body and it is because of this that organisms perceive the world according to Karl Pribram. The holographic memory is carried forward by the soul during transmigration from one body to another but the conscious memory is lost on brain death.

The conscious mind is connected to breathing. When the conscious mind is in agitated state the rate of breathing is high and when the conscious mind is calm the rate breathing is low. Every one experiences such conditions, for instance in a state of anger the mind is agitated and the breathing rate is high. The breathing rate is low and the mind is at rest while sleeping. The opposite is also true; by controlling the rate of breathing the state of conscious mind can be changed. The breathing exercises known as pranayama are potent methods to train the conscious mind. For the breathing process is linked to prana body, the prana body is coupled to conscious mind. This is why the conscious mind and prana body are described as part of tejas body, although they have independent functions. Depending on the state of conscious mind the prana body supplies the requisite amount of energy to enable the material body to function in the designed way. The conscious mind and prana body are intimately connected and mutually influence each other. The conscious mind can be controlled by operation of prana body through exercises of pranayama. On the other hand full benefits of pranayama are derived when the conscious mind is kept in control during such exercises. The conscious mind and prana body pair to form a working unit like husband and wife, who also maintain individual identity and independent role.

The function of conscious mind is linked to the neuron activity in the brain. A developed conscious mind means higher neuron activity and a large mind field. The field of conscious mind must coincide with the nervous system as shown in figure 5. There are other fields, the karma field of the karma body, the prana field of prana body and the thermal field due to thermal emissions from the material body. All the three fields must extend the entire length of material body as shown in the figure. The order shown in the figure is however not correct, it should rather be reverse, the thermal field roughly overlaps the body, the prana and karma field project little beyond and the conscious mind field forms a halo projecting farthest from the body. The prana field is also known as etheric field. The field of conscious mind may be supposed to consist of two parts, the astral field and mental field. The karma field can be compared to the causal field. The composite field constitutes the aura of the organism. The size of the aura is mainly determined by the conscious mind, it is large in pious souls and still larger in spiritually advanced personalities. The colour composition of aura reflects the thoughts and emotions, which are described by lesya.

The transmission of information through adhyavasaya and lesya is in two ways, information can flow from the karma body to material body or to conscious mind or vice versa and from conscious mind to material body and vice versa. This flow of information makes the system an integrated whole. The karma on the expiry of maturity period is not immediately dislodged but it can wait up to a certain period for a suitable occasion to arise. For example in case of physiological karma, the activities of body, mind and speech present suitable occasions for the mature physiological karmas to become active. If we overeat or eat or drink something that is not fit for consumption, or enter into a state of anger, or emotionally interact with some one, the corresponding physiological karma which are waiting after maturity (or sometimes even the premature karma) rise and show their influence which we experience as reaction to our actions. On the expiry of the waiting period the matured karmas will either necessarily show their influence or be destroyed without giving fruits depending on our action. In the former case we experience some unexpected event to which we are unable to assign any reason. The later possibility holds when we exercise care in our actions and conduct and do not do anything that is against the natural law.

The system of unconscious mind and conscious mind also works in a united way. The adhyavasaya from waiting karma depends on our thought activity; they tend to be of the same type as our thoughts. The resulting lesya shall exhibit the corresponding effect in our body and brain. Thus we tend to become what we think. There is a reinforcing effect of our thinking on our psychology, which is shaped accordingly. As before, the waiting matured psychological Karma can either show some unexpected effects or get dislodged without giving fruit depending on our way of thinking. A positive thinking saves us from undesired consequences and a negative thinking may produce unexpected reactions. To fully understand the psychology we have to be thorough with the doctrine of karma.

What is the relation between unconscious mind and conscious mind? It appears that the holographic unconscious mind contains all the memories, the memories of the past lives as well as the memories of this life, in the form of karma. What exactly is karma, is it a detailed memory record or record of some abstraction of memory typical of the event, is not known with certainty. There may also be a difference in the way the physiological and psychical records are stored. The physiological records that regulate the body physiology are purely unconscious, we do not consciously know the activities going on in the cells and the processes going on in the body, The soul maintains and manages the body unconsciously leaving the conscious mind completely free to deal with the external world. The conscious mind has not to worry about the operation of the body except when it comes to interaction between the body and the external environment. The conscious mind tends to protect the body from external effects; the internal working is not its responsibility.

The main responsibility of the conscious mind is to look after the psychic functions, including our conduct, behavior, thinking, imagining, planning, taking decisions, etc based on internal inputs from the karma body (psychical) and external stimuli received through senses. The brain is the place where the information is processed. The body through the brain executes the decisions taken by conscious mind. Both the brain and body must have the ability to carry out the functions directed by conscious mind; in case of disability in any one of them the conscious mind becomes helpless. The conscious mind does not allow access to psychical karma, its mentor, in the normal conditions. But if the conscious mind can be silenced, access to psychical karma is possible. But even in this case the physiological karma are perhaps not accessed and we cannot change the working of the body and thus adversely affect our own existence. Changes in the body do take place on reduction of psychical karma but the conscious mind has no role in it.

Besides interacting with the external world the conscious mind can also be directed inwards to explore the secrets of our subtle existence. Usually this requires withdrawing attention from the outer world, may be temporarily, and concentrating on the inner world of the self. If this can be done the dividends are very rich and one discovers that the source of stable peace and happiness is within, the external world provides only temporary pleasure. The more and longer you concentrate on the inner self the more is the peace and happiness you derive so much so that at some stage you may like to completely withdraw from the external world, which now becomes meaningless for you.

The soul also interacts with the conscious mind directly in a limited way. The soul has the power to act independent of karma (parinamik bhava) and exercise its freedom of decision-making. One part of the faculty of discrimination and decision-making possessed by the conscious mind is directly linked to the soul. But generally the instinctually biased desires prevail and we neglect the voice of the soul and the conscious mind decides in favor of attractions that satisfy our attachment and aversion tendencies. However, a person of strong will can follow his inner voice and go contrary to luring attractions of conscious mind and pursue the spiritual call.

Can karma be eliminated before maturity? The answer is yes, but it is not simple. The karmas are fixed deposit of the soul and can be terminated only with his signature. For this one has to have access to the soul. The conscious mind and the material body are nominees of the soul and can receive the benefit only after maturity, they cannot terminate the deposit. To have an access to the soul one has to rise above the conscious mind and material body and this requires meditation on the soul through ascetic way of life. This is the field of spiritual development and has been dealt with in detail in Jain philosophy.

e) Conscious Mind and Material Body

The interaction between conscious mind and body is also very important. The material body ultimately consists of pudgal parmanu, whose independent existence has been recognized by Jain philosophy. The paramanus possess their properties and powers and can act independent of the soul. So the body and its systems can have some capability of independent working, which is mainly controlled by the brain. The brain is directly linked to conscious mind. It is for this reason that our thoughts have a great bearing on the state of the body. Right and positive thoughts are conducive to good health and wrong and negative thoughts adversely affect our health. There is enough experimental evidence to suggest that religious and spiritual life style lead to better health. Both psychology and medical science have explored this area in detail. The process taking place in body is subjected to the properties of the material they are made of.

f) Cosmic Consciousness

Carl Jung proposed the existence of collective unconscious (Freud did not accept this idea). Jung divided the unconscious into two very unequal levels: the more superficial personal, and the deeper collective, unconscious. The collective unconscious is universal and predates the individual. It is the repository of all the religious, spiritual, and mythological symbols and experiences. From our point of view both the unconscious are included in the psychical Karma, which also predate the present form. Some thinkers have interpreted the collective unconscious as a kind of "Universal Mind" or metaphysical reality, which is not correct.

Rupert Sheldrake applied the idea of morphic fields to explain the existence of group mind or group field in the coordination of collective animal behaviour. Some kind of "collective behaviour" has also been observed in humans by social psychologists, behaviour of crowds, football hooligans, rioting mobs, and lyndring mobs are some examples.

Jain philosophy (Bhagwati canon) describes 10 instincts in organisms. Eight of these were mentioned earlier, these instincts are impulsive and are the consequence of karma. All instincts represent tendency of the soul to interact with the outside world under the influence of karma, this appears to be a natural property of the soul, but it is not so. The other two instincts, mass mentality (loka samjna) and cosmic consciousness (ogha samjna) are beyond karma and originate deeper in the consciousness. The mass mentality has been described as a personal consciousness signifying the individual characteristic and traditional wisdom, which is inherited from parents and earlier generations, and is expressed when performing in a group like a crowd. The mass mentality is seen in ants as moving in a line, in bees as obeying the queen, in birds as flying in formation, etc. The cosmic consciousness on the other hand is group consciousness that connects the individual to a group or cosmos and determines his behaviour. For example a creeper climbs a support or some animals and birds run for a safe shelter on sensing an earthquake. This type of knowledge is neither sensual nor mental; it is an independent expression of the soul that is natural and not conscious based. In both these cases some kind of connectivity between souls or between soul and cosmos is involved and for this to happen the vargana fields (morphic fields) may have a role. Vargana fields provide a medium for instantaneous connection between unconscious minds through which the soul communicates and responds in an extra-ordinary way that is beyond the capacity of conscious mind. The same instinct should also be the cause of telepathy observed in organisms in various ways. For instance, some dogs have been found to have prior knowledge of home coming of their masters, and some people can guess what their contacts at far away distances are thinking, etc. Such instances of knowledge are, however, instinctual and are different from direct perceptions by the soul, a capability which is attained by ascetics on spiritual advancement.

The cosmic consciousness exists in all organisms but it is more prominently expressed in lower organisms or in higher organisms having less developed conscious mind. In humans the activity of conscious mind acts as a noise against which the weak signals coming from other sources or souls are not captured. If the conscious mind is calm there is no reason for not receiving those weak signals and sensing the events, which lower organisms do.

g) Neuro-Electromagnetic Fields

Michael A. Persinger, a neuropsychologist, and Todd Murphy explored the application of neuro-electromagnetic fields to brain. They rigged up a motorcycle helmet with electromagnets and directed electromagnetic energy to specified parts of the subject’s brain. The subjects often have spiritual and religious reactions, especially mystical feelings of being in the presence of God, triggered by the energy fields. Persinger found that, by varying the frequency and intensity of the electromagnetic pulses, a unitive state with the universe could be elicited as well as a sensed presence of God. The sense, which a person makes out of the experience, depends on how it is interpreted; and that interpretation is based on one’s earlier experiences. Both Persinger and Todd Murphy explained such experiences with the help of operation of the brain and the background of the subject.

Let us analyze the above experiences in the light of our model. We know that memories of this life are stored in conscious mind and the memories of the past life exist in the unconscious mind. Excitation of brain by electromagnetic means at a certain frequency induces similar excitation in the conscious mind by resonance. The memory stored at that frequency (and intensity) is activated and the subject becomes conscious of the same. If the excitation frequency matches with some memory fields of unconscious mind, the memory of previous births in the unconscious mind relating to that field may also be activated and be transferred to conscious mind through adhyavasaya. The subject then becomes conscious of that part of his past. This experience lasts for the period of excitation only, the subject returns to his earlier state on removal of the excitation field. Such an experience is not likely to be an organized one and the subject may not be conscious of one particular event but a combination of many events, making the experience a concocted story. The experiments show that the connection between conscious mind and brain is location specific; by exciting different parts of the brain different memory in the conscious mind is activated.

h) Faith Healing

Another important area, which requires explanation, is faith healing. Some representative examples of faith healing are.

Randolph Byrd studied 393 patients admitted to the coronary-care unit of San Francisco General Hospital. Some were prayed for by home-prayer groups, others were not. All the man and women got medical care. In this randomized, double blind study, neither the doctors and neither nurses nor the patients knew who would be the object of prayer. The result, were dramatic and surprised many scientists. Men and women whose medical was supplemented with prayer needed fewer drugs and spent less time on ventilators. They also fared better overall than their counterparts who received medical care but nothing more.

In a survey of 131 controlled experiments on spiritual healing, it was found that prayed for rye grass grew faster, prayed for yeast resisted the toxic effects of cyanide, prayed - for - test tube bacterial grew faster.

At the 'Mind Science Foundation' in San Antonio, Texas, researchers took blood samples from 32 volunteers, isolated their red blood cells (RBCS) and placed the samples in a room on the other side of the building. Then the researchers placed the RBCs in a solution designed to swell and burst them, a process that can be measured extremely accurately. Next the researchers asked the volunteers to pray for the preservation of some of the RBCs. The praying significantly slowed the swelling and bursting of the RBCs.

In another study at the Mind Science Foundation, volunteers in a room on one side of the building were asked to visualize volunteers in a room on the other side of the building becoming calmer or more agitated. Mean while, the "receivers" were hooked up to bio feed back- type equipment to gauge their reactions. The result showed that the "influences" exerted a statistically significant effect on the receiver's moods.

All above and other similar cases, including the effects of starring at objects tried by Rupert Sheldrake, can be explained on the basis of cosmic consciousness. The sender soul transmits thought waves through vargana fields, which are directed towards a particular soul or a group of souls at a given location far or near. The target soul receives them if tuned to the frequency of transmitted waves. The receiving soul shall experience the effect of the message contained in the waves if his mental state is in favourable condition. If the mental state of the receiver is not in a favourable condition he/she may not experience the effect even if the waves are received. A sick person is generally mindful of his sickness and his mental state is in a favourable condition. A healthy person may be pre occupied with some other thoughts and his mental state may or may not be in favourable state. So the chances of a sick person getting benefited by prayers are more than that of a healthy person. Prayers may not affect mentally strong persons. Spiritually advanced persons who are awake may receive the message and be aware of it but may not experience any effect as their mental states are free of worldly consideration which is normally the subject matter of prayer messages. In any case, the effects of prayers and other similar intentional efforts can be explained only by taking soul into consideration. Without this the matter is like enjoying a play and forgetting the actor. It is the soul that has cosmic consciousness and receives the message of other souls; the field is the physical medium of transmission of message.

i) Evolution

Lastly, we examine the case of evolution of life. Jain philosophy describes evolution of consciousness; a soul is initially in most impure state having least explicit consciousness. By its inherent attribute the soul wants to be pure and for this he has to get rid of karmas, which are the source of contamination. So it is the act of soul and Karma which makes the soul to transmigrate from one body to another, enjoy and eliminate the karma in the journey, where new karmas are also continuously formed due to activities of body, speech and mind, whatever is applicable. The soul has to evolve through bodies of one-sense organisms to five sense organisms and finally to human form, which is the highest developed species in the universe. The process of evolution is certainly influenced by environmental factors as suggested by Darwin but that is not the whole story. The internal forces of soul are as important as the external factors and the two together decide the evolution. This subject is discussed in detail in my forthcoming book "Jain Metaphysics and Science. A comparison”. Some passages from the book are quoted here.

Evolution Hypothesis

Evolution is of two types:

Horizontal evolution. Development of new species having same number of senses.

Vertical evolution. Development of new species with increasing number of senses.

There are two types of forces of evolution:

Natural forces. These forces originate in the environment. The mechanisms of evolutions like, linkage, heterozygosity, recombination, gene flow, population structure, drift, natural selection and adoption are of environmental origin.

Inner forces or forces of consciousness. These forces have their origin in the consciousness and operate through karma body. Mutation belongs to this category.

Natural forces cause horizontal evolution in lower order organisms. For example, under the influence of antibiotic drugs a new kind of bacteria resistant to the drug is evolved.

The ease of horizontal evolution of organism declines with increase in consciousness. It means that horizontal evolution of one sense organism is easy and it progressively becomes more restrained in two, three and four sense organisms.

Both the natural forces and inner forces cause vertical evolution in lower order organisms. Unless requisite level of consciousness is attained, vertical evolution cannot take place.

Inner forces primarily determine evolution in higher order organisms with five senses. Natural forces may have a marginal role in horizontal evolution but not in vertical evolution from animal to humans. Animals with five senses have mind, make choices and so bond karma. Strictly speaking organisms without brain or mind can also have bondage of karma. This happens in some plants and in organisms having one to four senses, but the bondage is relatively small in these organisms, karmas acting through gene mutation may become cause for horizontal as well as vertical evolution. Under the influence of karma a five-sense animal may go down the line and be born as an animal of lower order or become eligible to be a human being. Upward journey here does not mean that the human body is evolved from animal body it only means that the animal soul is reborn in a human body. A five-sense animal can also have infernal or celestial body in the next birth depending on his karma.

The human being has the highest mental power and bonding of karma becomes most important for him. Natural forces have a minimal role in his horizontal evolution and no role in vertical evolution. The vertical evolution (or de-evolution) is entirely determined by karma. A human being having a balance of demerit to his/ her credit may be born as animal of higher or lower order, or as infernal being in the next life depending on the balance. A human being having a merit balance may have a celestial body in the next birth. In case of mix of merit and demerit the soul may retain the human body in next life.

In general the pace of evolution is proportional to the level of consciousness. It means that vertical evolution of one sense soul is slowest and takes more time and that of five senses soul is fastest and takes less time. According to this rule the population of one-sense organisms e.g. plants and viruses, shall be a maximum and the population of human beings shall be a minimum at any time, even without voluntary and artificial means of birth control.

Evolution is only half the story of a soul. The ultimate destination of a soul is salvation. This important aspect of life has no place in science but is studied seriously in philosophy and psychology. Jain philosophy gives utmost importance to salvation and has deliberated on it in detail.

Conclusions

The doctrine of karma based on the direct experience of omniscient explains the secrets of our existence. It presents the truths that are experienced by every living organism. The doctrine states that the organisms exist at two levels, a gross level in the form of material body and a subtle level in the form of fields. The functioning of the material body cannot be fully explained without consideration of the subtle fields. Every cell of the body has a subtle counterpart, which is the medium of manifestation of the soul. The cell and its constituent part like DNA are indeed very complex structures, but their operation is not independent, it depends heavily on the flow of information from the subtle counterpart. The advancements in life sciences have provided minute details of the material body and have also revealed its limitations. It is now clear that the functioning of a complex system like a cell is possible only with the help of some source of intelligence, the soul. Not only the physiological structure and operation of the body but also the conduct and behavior of the living organism is guided by the subtle fields. The diversity in organisms can be easily ascribed to subtle fields of karma. Variation in karma makes every individual, rather every organism, a unique specimen. The advancements in science have enabled us to appreciate how the doctrine of karma operates scientifically. The scientific evidence is now mounting to validate the various tenets of the doctrine.

Further understanding of our existence will depend on study of the subtle part. Science has a long way to go to acquire this capability. It would be discovered in due course that the subtle counterpart is much more powerful than the gross part of our existence. By controlling the subtle part abilities like clairvoyance and telepathy, among many others, could be achieved. But this is not the ultimate aim of life. As we go deep in the subtle world we would realize that although it is the place of many physical powers, it really limits the powers of the soul, which is infinite. To invoke the powers of the soul is the path of spirituality, which cannot be traversed by physical means. Spiritual powers are far more superior to physical powers and are likely to attract the attention of the scientists of future, so much so that science may merge with spirituality. Spirituality can reveal the absolute truths whereas science can only provide the relative truths. A truth seeker is likely to give up science and pursue spirituality, give up the lure of physical powers and take resort in the powers of the spirit. The full powers of the spirit can be realized not with the physical bodies, including the subtle, but without them. On getting rid of all the bodies the soul experiences unlimited bliss, the ultimate and purest state where all the desires have come to an end. The science then looses its existence, the absolute truth prevails.

Appendix

Body Determining Karma

The body determining karma decide the place of birth like heaven, hell or Earth like planet, the kind of species on Earth, shape and structure of the body, number of organs, etc. of the soul in the next birth. Other types of karmas determine the qualities and capabilities of the organism. There are 42 types, and 93 sub-types, of body determining karma. The fruition of these karma initiates processes, which determine the respective body characteristics.

The realms of existence (Gati) karma. The karma, which give the soul the shape of an infernal being, subhuman being, human being or celestial being, are called realms of existence karma.

The genus of being (Jati) karma. The fruition of genus of being karma is the reason that the soul becomes one sense, two-sense, three-sense, four-sense, or five-sense being.

Body (Sarira) karma. The body karma decides the kind of bodies from among the 5 types the soul will have. The 5 types of bodies are gross (audarik), fluid (vaikriya) migrating (aharaka), luminous (tejas) and karma body.

Organ (Angopang) karma. The fruition of this karma determines formation of various organs at proper place and of appropriate size in the body. This is of three sub types, the organs for gross body, fluid body and migration body.

Morphology (Nirman) body karma. The fruition of this karma determines that all organs and parts shall assemble and integrate in a proper way to impart a shape typical of the species.

Body bond (Bandhan) karma. The fruition of this karma is the basis for atoms and molecules of the five types of bodies to unite.

Integration of body (Sanghat) karma. The fruition of this karma effect integration of united molecules to form a monolithic structure.

Architecture of body (Sansthan) karma. The fruition of this karma gives the lump of mass a definite shape. There are six types of body shapes.

Perfect symmetry all over (Samchaturastra Sansthan) karma.

Nyagrodh Parimandal Sansthan karma. Nyagrodh means fig. Tree, and parimandal means circumference. The fruition of this karma is the cause for the body to be like a fig tree. The body is short and asymmetrical below the navel, and large and symmetrical above it.

Svati Sansthan karma. Fruition of this karma gives the body a tapering shape, broad and symmetrical in the lower, but short and asymmetrical in the upper extremities.

Hunchback figure (Kubjak) body karma. The fruition of this karma gives the body a hunch or spread in the middle.

Dwarf (Vaman) body karma. The fruition of this karma results in a dwarf or short body.

Asymmetrical (Hundak) body karma. The fruition of this karma gives an asymmetrical or irregular body

Skeleton (Sanhanan) karma. The fruition of this karma provides the skeleton structure of bones and joints to the body. There are six types of skeleton structures.

Fully adamantine skeleton (Vrij Rushabh Narach Sanhanan) karma. The fruition of this karma gives the body the adamantine bones, joints and nerves. It is very strong structure (like steel).

Partial adamantine skeleton (Vrij Narach Sanhanan) karma. The fruition of this karma gives the body the adamantine bones and joints but not nerves. This structure is also very strong.

Loose skeleton (Asamprata Supatika Sanhanan) karma. The fruition of this karma gives a skeleton structure of loosely jointed bones. This is the weakest type of skeleton structure. The normal human beings have this kind of skeleton structure.

The body colour (Varna) karma. The fruition of this karma determines the colour of the body.

The body smells (Gandh) karma. This karma determines the smell of the body. The smell can be fragrant or foul.

The body taste (Rasa) karma. This karma determines the taste of the body or its parts (like fruits, leaves)

The body touches (Sparsha) karma. This karma determines the quality of touch of the body.

Migration (Anupurvi) body karma. This determines the shape of the body the soul has during migration from one life to another life. The shape of migration body is similar to the shape of the body left by the soul.

Balanced weight (Agurulaghu) body karma. This karma determines the balance of weight in the body. The body is not too heavy, like an iron ball, nor too light like a cotton ball.

Self-destructive (Upaghat) body karma. The fruition of this karma provides a body that can harm the self. For example, a stag's horn.

Bellicosity (Paraghat) body karma. This provides a body, which becomes a cause in destroying others. For example, poison in the mouth of a snake, sting in the tail of a scorpion, paws of a lion, poison in a tree, etc.

Hot radiation (Atap) body karma. The fruition of this karma provides a body that gives hot radiations. The body itself is not hot but its radiations produce heat.

Cold radiation (Udyot) body karma. The fruition of this karma provides a body that gives cold radiations. For example a glowworm.

Movement of body (Vihayogati) karma. The fruition of this karma provides movements to body. The movements are of two types: graceful and awkward.

Respiration (Uchchhavas) body karma. The fruition of this karma enables the body to have respiration i.e. a respiration system is formed in the body.

Mobile (Trasa) body karma. Fruition of this karma provides mobility in the body. The body has two to five senses.

Stationary (Sthavar) body karma. Fruition of this karma provides a stationary body to soul. For example, earth body, water body, air body, fire body or plant body. These living beings are motion less.

Gross (Badar) body karma. This karma determines that the soul will have a gross (visible) body.

Nano (Susksma) body karma. This karma determines that the soul will have a nano body. For example virus, nano organisms.

Developed (Paryapta) body karma. This karma determines that the body is fully developed in respect of six bio potentials.

Underdeveloped (Aparyapta) body karma. This karma results in underdeveloped, body lacking in one or all bio potentials.

Individual (Pratyeka) body karma. The fruition of this karma gives an individual body to the soul.

Common (Sadharana) body karma. The fruition of this karma determines that a body is shared by many souls.

Stable (Sthir) body karma. The fruition of this karma ensures that the organs in the body are stable.

Unstable (Asthir) body karma. The fruition of this karma makes the organs in the body unstable. That is, the organ formed shall not retain shape and size.